Thoughts on CES 2018

2018 is off with a bang, and so are we! We spent this past week in Las Vegas demo-ing our technology at CES and had a great time talking with fellow entrepreneurs and technologists. Here’s a few key takeaways from our CES experience.

Great Startups Start Anywhere

During CES, Shantanu spoke on a Techstars panel themed “Great Startups Start Anywhere” to share the benefits and reasons of why companies decide to start outside of Silicon Valley. In addition to representing our home state, Shantanu highlighted the importance of the networks and resources we have in Arizona, and how Phoenix is a becoming start-up city. The diversity in company headquarters throughout Eureka Park also illustrates the claim that great startups start anywhere. Companies we talked with came from a wide variety of cities in the US including Kansas City, Arlington, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Exhibitors from the Netherlands, Canada, and France — among many other foreign countries– had a large presence in Eureka Park.

Meeting Other Eureka Park Entrepreneurs

Though a bit overwhelming at first, Eureka Park was our favorite section of CES. In addition to picking up free Arduinos, we appreciated the ability to speak directly with the innovators that developed the products at each of the booths. We enjoyed being able to learn more about the ideas that started the product and the use-cases each company wanted to use their technology for. Meeting other people who are also developing VR and AR technology was a motivating and humbling reminder that our platform, which augments reality for your sense of touch, is at the forefront of new technology development.

Inbound Interest for Using Our SDK

Lastly, having a booth in Eureka Park allowed us to give live demos of our technology and introduce attendees to the industry and consumer products applications of our haptic platform. We were excited to see the inbound interest from automotive companies, other Eureka park startups, and individual software developers that want to use our SDK and hardware to add haptic feedback to the projects they are working on. Additionally, watching the reactions people had for the first time when trying our form factors is always a fun experience!

If you were also at CES, we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did. If not, check out the many articles published online for a rundown of the highlights!